When Dale and I first started researching the Rademacher family history, all we had to go on was a 22-page family tree that had been assembled in about 1975 by Mrs. Joe (Kay) Nave. Kay’s mother-in-law was Helena Rademacher Nave, the beautiful woman (back row, second from left) in the Rademacher family photo. (Next weekend, I’ll scan Kay’s family tree and make it available to all as a pdf file.)
On page 2, she re-printed Joseph’s obituary which stated the following:
The deceased was born in Olpe, Westphalen, Germany on January 13, 1843. He was united in Holy Matrimony to Josephine Kipp at Olpe, Westphalen on the 17th of May 1870.
Dale and I set about to verify this and if possible, determine who Joseph’s parents were and extend the family tree as far back in time as we could.
So where is Olpe? And how do you find out about people born there in the 1800’s?
Olpe is located due east of Cologne (aka Köln). This part of Gerrmany is quite hilly. In the map below, you can see Köln at far left and Olpe at far right. Düsseldorf is just off the edge of the upper left corner.
As far as finding out about people living there in the 1800’s, we decided to start our search at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The Library is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Their library is free and open to the public. It is an amazing place. In my next post, I’ll tell you what we found out.
